Blind beliefs

Sometimes legislators rush in where rationalists fear to tread. Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde now threatens to bring in a bill to "combat" superstition and "prosecute" those spreading it among people. His enthusiasm for such legislation was spurred by an incident of human sacrifice that reportedly took place in Borwand village in his state. Human sacrifice, of source, is abominable, especially when it takes place on the threshold of a millennium. But it cannot be addressed by an enacting quixotic laws. Instead, it should be treated like any other murder and exemplary punishment awarded to those who may have participated in it for whatever reason.

Munde’s Bill to defeat irrationality is itself an exercise in irrationality.If he spends some time reading the constitution, he may realise that the country’s founding father did include a line on the need "to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of enquiry and reform", but they took care to place it in the section listed as "Fundamentals duty". In doing so, they were only recognising the simple fact that such attitudinal changes cannot be wrought through state legislation. Instead, It will have to flow from the perceptions of citizens. Its true of source that this, in term, is dependent on several factors, including the education they have received and the condition in which they live. It may be recalled that the worship of Seetala Mata, or the Goddess of Small Pox, was widespread as long as this acutely contagious virus played havoc with human life. Once a disease was brought under control through modern medicine, the need to worship such a Goddess also declined. So the state does have a role in promoting rationality, but it will have to be through indirect methods like providing education, adequate health facilities and the means to live productive lives. Attempts made by rationalists like the Dr. Abraham Kovoor, a Sri Lankan who made it his life’s mission to fight irrationality by exposing seeming miracles, is also something that the State can encourage. Kovoor travelled tirelessly throughout the country demonstrating how godmen produce ash out of thin air and walk on hot coals. Groups like the People’s Science Movement have tried to carry out this legacy by staging science yatras and so on.

There is, however, a group of people who could benefit from legislation aimed at punishing those who legitimise superstition — politicians. For years this lot, unsure as they are about their ability to remain in the people’s affections because of their dodgy ways, have succumbed quite easily to the blandishments of swamis and seers. How, otherwise, did a Dhirendra Brahmacharya come to exercise such an enormous influence on Indira Gandhi? Or a Chandraswami rise so spectacularly during the days of Narasimha Rao? Why did Tamil Nadu’s one-time empress, Jayalalitha, insist on the use of the number nine in her official dealings, or as astrologer’s predictions taken so seriously in the corridors of power? It is in addressing such irrational behaviour that Munde’s Bill could help!